Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton Commander of the Order of the British Empire was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton.
Background
Following a secondary education at the independent school Ardingly College, he joined British Broadcasting Corporation Television as an in-house producer of light entertainment programmes in 1956, working on various programmes such as his father’s Billy Cotton Band Show and popular music programme Six-Five Special.
Career
In 1970, Cotton was promoted to Head of Light Entertainment, following the death of Tom Sloan in May. In this position, Cotton was responsible for overseeing the production of a whole series of popular and iconic comedy programmes, including The Morecambe and Wise Show (1968-1977), Monty Python"s Flying Circus (1969-1974), The Two Ronnies (1971-1987) and Bruce Forsyth"s Generation Game (first run 1971-1977). Cotton"s era was generally seen as the most eclectic in the history of British Broadcasting Corporation Light Entertainment, with programmes such as Morecambe and Wise becoming icons of British popular culture and drawing huge audiences, while the more subversive Monty Python provided a more cutting-edge, contemporary and daring complement.
Cotton’s success as Head of Light Entertainment led to his promotion to Controller of BBC1, the Corporation’s premier and the United Kingdom’s oldest television station, in 1977.
He oversaw some of the channel’s highest-ever audience figures in 1979, although this was mostly due to the main opposition, Independent Television, being on strike for over two months. In 1981, he was replaced as controller of BBC1 by Alan Hart and made the British Broadcasting Corporation"s deputy managing director of television under Alasdair Milne.
In 1984 Cotton was promoted to become Managing Director of Television, a role he fulfilled until his retirement from the Corporation in 1988. During this final period at the British Broadcasting Corporation he was involved with Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell in the attempted cancellation of Doctor Who in 1985 after a run of 22 years on the British Broadcasting Corporation, a decision which became an 18-month hiatus following a tabloid backlash (the series wasn"t completely axed until 1989).
Cotton subsequently did some freelance executive producing work in the light entertainment area and served as chairman of Noel Gay Television.
He was deputy chairman of Meridian Broadcasting from 1992 to 1996, then chairman until 2001.